Thursday 30th September 1999

Bath - Moles

It was a pleasant, almost traffic free drive over to Bath. We found the venue very easily and even had to wait around for someone to turn up at the venue as we were a little early again.

The gear was loaded in to the venue across the main road, straight into the venue. And.. here we are in the famous Moles club. Believe it or not, I have never played in Bath before, although I have visited my mates Sam and Kelly once, so I knew the town fairly well. If you haven't been, you should go, it's a beautiful place.

The venue itself is steeped in Rock 'n' Roll. Just about every band you can think of in the last 20 years has played there and you can feel the vibe. We were warmly welcomed by the engineer, Trevor, who wasted no time setting up his gear and preparing for what was to be an easy and great sounding soundcheck.

When we were done the local support band Spin went up and did their stuff, whilst we went to the pub upstairs to get some food and a few beers. There was also a band playing on the tiny upstairs stage. I don't know what they were called, but they made a fairly nice noise.

I was a bit worried when we returned to the venue to watch Spin do their stuff and the place was looking a little empty. Thought of Wolverhampton shot through my head. But when I went upstairs for a oui oui, I saw that there were quite a few people just sitting drinking and missing Spin, which was their loss as Spin are a grreat little band.

When we eventually hit the first chord of The Abdoujaparov Theme Song, the crowd was looking much better and the promoter Clayton was looking a lot less nervous.

Due to me being a silly old fool and forgetting my contact lenses, I played my first gig wearing glasses, which was not very punk rock, but at least I could see the setlist properly for once!

It was a great gig involving lots of dodgy bit of rock n roll cheesiness. I must say....we rocked! When my microphone broke, I asked a Kiwi member of the audience to come up and tell a joke. Like all New Zealand jokes it was an anti-australian one and I didn't get it. Just after that I was accosted by his girlfriend who insisted in snogging me in exchange for me letting her boyfriend sing a Ramones song. I said that we didn't know any Ramones song, but she said that she'd kiss me anyway...which was nice.

After the gig, the backstage area was invaded by a hoard of Kiwis and Australians who insisted that they buy t-shirts in exchange for us playing Ramones songs at their house that night. We got very drunk apart from Ben who was driving, which is a little unfair to the poor chap as he had to drive last week too.

We left the venue after having a bit of a dance to a selection of classic indie hits supplied by the d J. We were happy bunnies.

The drive back to London was very uneventful, I think that I slept most of the way. After dropping everyone and the gear off Ben drove me home and I eventually got into bed 6am. What a long day.

Verdict: Nice Place, Great Venue, Good Gig.

Love fruity xxx